Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning singer Harry Connick Jr. is helping to “dramatically” rewrite a new stage show based on his song “The Happy Elf” to fit a production by Pennsylvania Youth Theatre this winter in Bethlehem, Connick and PYT officials said.

Harry Connick Jr.

Connick, who has had more No. 1 albums than any other artist in jazz chart history, even started writing a new song for the production during a visit with the production team in Bethlehem. The show also will add a new main character, PYT Executive Director Michael Melcher said.

The PYT production will be a template for other companies to put on the show, Melchner said.

“To think that 30 years from now, some guy in Seattle is going to be looking at directions from Bethlehem on how to produce this show is pretty amazing,” he said.

Connick was in town “start the process” of going through the script, looking at the Ice House and drafting concepts of sets.

“It says on paper that you have to have a meeting, but you never really know to what level the specificity is going to get,” Connick said in an interview Monday. “And they sort of asked me, ‘How specific do you want to go?’ And I said, ‘Let’s go; let’s write a show.’

“So we started talking about what the overture was going to be, and whether there was going to be an overture and the actual length of it.””

“The Happy Elf” will be performed Nov. 30 to Dec. 16 at the Charles A. Brown Ice House on Sand Island in Bethlehem. The song, originally released on Connick’s 2003 album “Harry for the Holidays,” also was made into an animated television special in 2005, but the play is “not quite the same story,” Melcher said.

“The Happy Elf” is described as a lovable holiday musical that tells the story of Eubie, known as the happiest elf at the North Pole, who is stuck with checking the naughty-and-nice list. But on Christmas Eve, he notices no one in Bluesville is on the nice list, and embarks on a journey with his friends and his holiday magic to turn all of the kids nice in time for Christmas.

But PYT’s “The Happy Elf” will differ even from its few previous stage productions, Melcher said. For example, it has gone from a single-act play to a two-act play, and the size of its cast has grown from a dozen to 75 to jibe with PYT’s goal of inclusiveness.

Connick was in Bethlehem for just the day Monday (he plays a show today9/25 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada).But he’ll come back for rehearsals and workshops Oct. 29-30 and Nov. 16-18, a preview gala at Moravian College and for the show’s opening, Melcher said.

Melcher said Connick has standing tickets for the run of the show, but wasn’t sure how many he’ll attend.

Connick admitted he’s very hands-on with the show, but welcomed PYT officials’ input.

“I like top be in control,” Connick said. “When I do my [music] show, I know exactly what I’m gonna do. … I feel very comfortable being at the helm, sort of directing it. There’s also a sense of freedom, I think. It’s very liberating to sort of not be that person, and to be in a collaborative space where there are four or five other key people that are as important or more important than I am. And when those people have really smart things to say, you kind of walk out of there smiling.”

Melcher, a self-described “huge fan” of Connick, said PYT became aware of the play last spring. “The music just floored us,” he said. In April, he said, he reached out to Connick’s management, proposing to “tweak this for a large cast.” Melcher said the response was, “Actually, we’ve been thinking about doing that.”

Despite that, Melcher said he was intimidated when PYT officials went to New York to meet with Connick.

“How do you tell Harry Connick Jr., ‘You’ve got a really good idea, but I think I could make it a little better,’ ” Melcher said. But “they loved the idea, and everything started falling in place.”

“A lot depends on those meetings,” Connick said. “But immediately, I said, ‘Wow, these people are good. So I’m really happy. Melcher said Connick was so enthused, that when they were leaving, the singer “hopped on the elevator with us to finish the conversation.”

Even Monday, Connick said, Melcher was “coming up with ideas,” but was deferential, “kind of putting his hands up, saying, ‘I don’t know if I should be suggesting this …’ I said, ‘Hell yes, suggest it.’ … He had some really smart things to say. I love that. You just have to leave your ego at the door.”

Melcher said interest in the show has been strong. “People are calling from Philly, wanting to bring buses up,” he said. “Talk about some validation, it’s validation for these kids.”

He said more than 200 children auditioned, and PYT chose two full casts that will alternate shows, but still had to cut 50 of those who tried out.

Connick has sold more than 16 million albums in the United States and had seven Top 20 albums and 10 No. 1 jazz albums. His best-selling album is 1993’s “When My Heart Finds Christmas,” which also is one of the best-selling Christmas albums in the United States. He has won three Grammy Awards.

He also has won two Emmy Awards for acting, with a recurring role as the husband of the title character on the TV show “Will & Grace” from 2002 to 2006. He’s also starred in several films.

This guy is a total fraud. He's not a native of New Orleans! He's a native of Weston, Connecticut, where he attended public school from 1970-1982. His real father was never the DA there. Connick Sr is or was one of the bigwigs at Sony Music and a stockholder in Sony Pictures.

Posted By: I Smell Poop | Dec 31, 2012 12:48:20 PM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.